[PW] Joe Louis on Hitler

[S M Colowick]

The closest I've found to an actual citation is in an Army history
book at http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/11-4/chapter11.htm:

"There may be a whole lot wrong with America, but there's nothing that
Hitler can fix" - Attributed to Joe Louis by a public speaker; quoted
in Sterling A. Aroreri, "Out of Their Mouths," Survey Graphic, XXXI
(Novernber, 1942) , 483.

I've seen versions of it in various publications. Some say he said it
when he was inducted; some say it was when he was entertaining troops
in Europe or when he landed in England. Variations include:

"There is nothing wrong with my country that Mr. Hitler can fix."

"I know there are things wrong with my country, but it's nothing
Hitler can fix."

"Man, whatever's wrong with my country ain't nothing Hitler can fix."

An interesting aside that reminded me of one of your other
unanswerable questions: Joe Louis claimed that he was a boxer because
he couldn't be anything else.

-- smc

On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 9:36 PM,  <Solomons1pal at aol.com> wrote:
> Colleagues,
>
>    I've read that at the entrance of America into World War II,  someone
>  asked Joe Louis why he, a Negro, was willing to fight for the U.S. when  he had
>  been in so many ways oppressed by racism here.  He answered (not an  exact
>  quote), "Whatever's wrong with the U.S., Hitler can't fix it."\
>
>    Can anyone give me a citation for this (near) quotation?
>
>                                     Mark  Halpern
>